The Virginia Living Museum is located at Newport News, Virginia and is an open air type museum that features live exhibits of native animal species from the land and waters of Virginia. There are at least 250 plants and animals on display at the museum?s planetarium, aquarium, aviary, botanical garden, science center and other interactive exhibits.

The museum was not originally intended to be a living museum. It was established as the Junior Nature Museum and Planetarium in 1966 where it housed natural science, physics and applied science exhibits. It also changed its name to the Peninsula Nature and Science Center in 1976. But in 1983, it gradually changed its route by displaying some live exhibits incorporated with its usual still displays. This idea was copied from the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Four years later, the museum was re-launched to the public as the Virginia Living Museum and continued to expand into a 62,000 square feet building, with a wide range of exhibits that feature animals in their natural environment, an aviary, a butterfly garden and a boardwalk.